Des Moines, IA ? With just more than two weeks until Election Day, the stark choice in the Iowa Senate race on women's health care continues to drive the campaign narrative and dominate headlines as Iowans learn more about state Sen. Joni Ernst's extreme views?and Sen. Ernst continues to struggle immensely with women voters.
While Iowans already knew that state Sen. Ernst had sponsored a radical personhood bill in the Iowa Senate that would ban common forms of birth control and eliminate a women's right to choose even in the cases of rape or incest, Ernst told the Sioux City Journal editorial board this week that she would even support federal personhood legislation efforts?impacting women not just in Iowa, but across the nation.
The topic of women's health care was then a dominant focus of the final Iowa Senate debate and its coverage, as state Sen. Ernst tried and failed to explain away her extreme positions, even when pressed for specifics.
In contrast, following his winning performance at Thursday's debate, Bruce Braley was proudly joined on the campaign trail by Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, who called Bruce a "champion" for women's health care in discussions with women in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, while highlighting Ernst's "dangerous" views for women.